Decreased Pressure 975 



June 16, the day when we crossed the Karakorum pass, he com- 

 plained of a pain in the back of his head; but since he always suf- 

 fered more or less from headaches as long as he was on lofty eleva- 

 tions, I thought that his pain meant nothing more; the pain con- 

 tinued the 17th, the day when we were crossing the deserts of Dip- 

 sang, where the level is still very high. Yesterday, the 18th, he 

 started early to investigate some rocks at Bruchse, and halfway along 

 he met us for lunch. He seemed very tired and complained about 

 his head. When we reached here about noon, he threw himself on 

 a bed, and soon began to breathe with difficulty and to cough a great 

 deal, and he vomited. His head and hands were very hot and his 

 pulse was quick and hard. He complained a great deal of pains in his 

 neck and the back of his head. By my advice, he put a mustard 

 plaster on his neck and another on his chest without feeling any great 

 relief. In the evening the cough became very severe, and the local 

 doctor prepared a mixture to soothe the irritation which caused the 

 cough; it continued just the same all night. In the morning it disap- 

 peared, but the patient, who was very weak, hardly seemed conscious. 

 Since the evening before he had said nothing, and replied only by a 

 few syllables to the questions asked him, without seeming to under- 

 stand very well what was said to him. This morning I asked him 

 twice if he felt any pain, to which he answered no. 



The local doctor seemed to think that he had an attack of acute 

 bronchitis and pneumonia. But after what Capt. Biddulph and I had 

 seen of the sickness that attacked him last October, at Kizil-Jilga, 

 on the Kashgar road, the symptoms of which we recognized, it was 

 clear to us that the disease was the same as the first time, that is, 

 a spinal meningitis. By the doctor's advice, a plaster was placed on 

 his right side. He remained till noon in a state of half-consciousness, 

 and several times took chicken broth and brandy with his medicine. 



He appeared neither better nor worse; his respiratory rate was 

 usually 50 to the minute, irregular, and often alternately deep and 

 difficult, or short and easy. The respiration was accompanied by 

 sonorous noises, which resembled the noise at the seaside or the 

 crackling of distant firing. Later, in the morning, it seemed to me 

 that the noise had become harsher. However, the breathing became 

 a little easier, and about 1:30 he signed that he wanted to be placed 

 in his chair. He was carried there and I gave him a little port, but 

 he seemed so weak and exhausted that I called Biddulph who, find- 

 ing the patient very low, went to get the colonel. When he was 

 placed in his bed, he tried at once to sit up; I held him from behind 

 to support him till the colonel should arrive; the noise of the death 

 rattle ceased — but he was still breathing deeply, his respiratory move- 

 ments became slower and slower, as did his pulse; finally he breathed 

 his last, dying so peacefully that it was impossible to fix exactly the 

 moment when he passed away. He had no agony, died apparently 

 without pain, and after his death an expression of rest and peace was 

 on his face. 



From the moment when he came here until he died, he hardly 

 said a word, and all conversation became impossible; however, when 



